Yes, it’s still free to subscribe to this nearly daily newsletter! Greg Mitchell is the author of fourteen books and director of five films for PBS since 2022. In a previous life, he was a longtime editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. You can also show appreciation by pledging a small sum if we go partly “paid” one day.
Stephen last night…..
And another NY Times account of what the end of Colbert show “means.”
The most obvious way “Late Show” remained counterprogramming involved current events: while “The Tonight Show,” led by Jimmy Fallon since 2014, has aimed for light apolitical fare, Colbert has responded to our moment by becoming forceful in his comic attacks on President Trump. The cancellation of Colbert’s show right before a deal that needed government approval has given his exit an additional resonance. In recent months, Colbert has leaned into Democratic political guests like James Talarico, Elizabeth Warren and (on May 5) Barack Obama….
Look at the replacement. Byron Allen’s “Comics Unleashed” is as cheaply made as possible. It’s a panel of stand-ups peddling their jokes. CBS didn’t program this show. It leased the time slot to Allen, who is in charge of selling his own ads. This is the most low-risk, low-reward option the network could have taken. It can’t lose money or make much cultural noise with “Comics Unleashed.” Norm Macdonald once described appearing on the show this way: “You could not have been more leashed.”
White House Insists Iran War Is Over, Even While Missiles Fly
Megan K. Stack: “In which a war ends not with a bang, nor with a whimper, but with blustering about how we are now fighting to fix the thing we broke when we started the war.”
Bernie Sanders last night:
3,375 people killed in Iran, 26,500 wounded
2,702 killed in Lebanon, 8,311 wounded
28 killed in Gulf states, 289+ wounded
26 killed in Israel, 7,791 wounded
13 US troops killed, 381 wounded
ENOUGH of Trump and Netanyahu’s endless wars.
President Trump reportedly pressured Marty Makary, the F.D.A. commissioner, to quickly approve flavored vapes as a way to appeal to younger voters, and guarantee more illness and death. Paul Krugman:
Most Americans appear to be unaware of the fact that life expectancy in the United States is substantially lower than in other advanced countries; we’re on a par with poorer nations in Europe like Albania. Surely even fewer people know that this wasn’t always true. In the early 1980s Americans lived about as long as citizens of other rich nations. Now we die substantially earlier.
What changed in the 1980s? The obvious answer is politics: The election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 heralded a sharp U.S. turn to the right. And there is a strong correlation between right-wing politics and increased mortality — stronger than many of the statistical associations that guide public health policy.
Taking population sizes into account, the trend line through the data points shows that there is there’s a strong, clear negative correlation between Trump-leaning orientation and low life expectancy at the state level. Deep red states like Alabama and West Virginia have life expectancy comparable to, say, Kazakhstan.
What drives this correlation? Part of the answer is that red states have weak social safety nets and are especially unwilling to provide healthcare to vulnerable populations.
This Film Is My Film, This Film is Your Film
First trailer for my new film, narrated by Rosanne Cash, which starts nationally over PBS on July 1. Before that, “Woody Guthrie and the Ghost of Tom Joad Today” will screen in Tulsa hosted by the Woody Guthrie Center and in L.A. at the Autry Museum, and receive its first broadcast airing over host station SoCal PBS in L.A. on June 25. Yes, the Springsteen song serves as the finale. This is my fifth film via PBS since 2022. As usual produced with Lyn Goldfarb. I wrote and directed, edited by Rob Burgos, and Barbara Bedway served as associate producer. If anyone wishes more information or even an interview, drop me a line.
Music Pick
Yes, there’s a new Stones’ single, off an upcoming album. To think I was a mere teen when “Satisfaction” came out.
From Tune to Toons
Brodner:
Ohman:
Anderson:
Bramhall:
Goris
de Adder:
Photo Finish
“Blue Heron, sunset, Rockland Lake.”
great shot of heron on the lake
Looking forward to seeing the movie.